Work In Progress: SMUGGLERS' ROAD, which is now THE SUDDEN SILENCE
Sun. Jun 7, 2015. (cont'd from 3.14.15) Is it SUDDEN SILENCE or THE SUDDEN SILENCE? This kind of stuff keeps me awake at night. I wanted to avoid the "THE" but I checked my favorites and they are THE GREAT GATSBY and THE SHELTERING SKY. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.
My friend Sue W. did me the enormous favor of a read-through. She gave me thumbs up for plot and characters and now I'm ready to do final revisions with her notes in hand. But first I wanted to be able to capture the feel of this novel with cover art and a back blurb. The "what's this book about" question always trips me up. I need to perfect my 30-second elevator pitch. But meanwhile the back blurb is getting me there.
All roads lead to Thailand—where the lovers of ancient treasure tangle with the international black market. In this complex landscape of protectors and predators, we meet Martin Moon and Delia Rivera. Both have been defeated by the dark powers of the art-trade netherworld.
Together, they seek to rise again—to escape the sudden silence of lives extinguished and loves lost.
But the savage forces that destroyed them are still at large. Their quest turns deadly.
Is there any such thing as a fresh start in this wicked world? Or is there only the wisdom of failure?
Which begs the question: Would you want to read this book? Looking at the back blurb, looking at the cover, what kind of genre would you predict it to be? I'm a little worried you might predict Indiana Jones with a machete hacking his way through the jungle. But, hmmm, don't know if my story is quite that adventure-heroic. Better focus on that Buddha... and that fearsome silence.
It's only a mock-up, a first draft. The colors are printing out muddy, which can't happen. The photo of the author's backside--ha-ha, I just threw that in.
I do love the quote I came up with for the opening epigraph:
It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. [Joseph Campbell]
I might like it as a tagline: "Where you stumble, there lies your treasure." Mysterious, evocative--and yet, that's pretty much the theme of my book!
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